Author’s Note: This little ficlet takes place during Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Sinners and Saints’, and has specific spoilers for everything up to that point. The first few lines are directly from the show, ending with Elijah’s delectable line about ‘teaching his brother a lesson’. :) Believe it or not, I’d written most of this story before the episode where Elijah says ‘He certainly needs a little discipline. Perhaps a spanking of some kind is in order.’ Jeez, it’s like the producers WANT me to write this kind of thing. LOL Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters, and I’m not making any money from this story.Warning: Non-consensual spanking of a vampire by his older brother.YouTube Clips:Clip One - This is a one minute clip of the events that take place in the begining of this story.Clip Two - This is a clip from the first episode. It shows the two brothers talking and fighting, and demonstrates how their relationship works most of the time.

TAUGHT A LESSON

Klaus heard Marcel coming, and took a deep breath to prepare himself for another argument. When Marcel was in sight, Klaus said, “Taking me on a fieldtrip to distract me? Pathetic, and obvious. I taught you better than that.”

Marcel looked up to the second story railing where his sire was standing, and shrugged. “You taught me to protect what’s mine. You will not take Davina from me, end of story.”

“An immutable law of nature, Marcel, is the strong always take from the weak.”

“Oh, if you were so strong, you wouldn’t have run away from New Orleans like a little bitch all those years ago.” Marcel knew those would set his sire off, but he was more than ready for a physical fight, even if he knew he couldn’t win.

With lightning speed, Klaus jumped off the railing, and slammed his fist into Marcel’s head, knocking the younger vampire to the ground.

“You’ve been playing king with a bunch of children for too long,” Klaus said with warning while Marcel stood up. “Don’t mistake me for one of your nightwalker lackeys, Marcel. I can take Davina anytime I like.”

Marcel loathed it when his sire talked down to him as if he were still a child. In a rage, he charged Klaus, but before he could even get in one punch, someone knocked him down hard.

Both Marcel and Klaus stared at Elijah in shock. The eldest Original was still supposed to be daggered and lying helplessly in a coffin, but here he was talking and seemingly in perfect health.

Klaus got over his shock quickly, and plastered a wide smile on his face. “It’s good to see you, brother.”

Without taking his eyes off his little brother, Elijah said, “If you’ll excuse us, Marcel. My brother and I have a few things to discuss in private.”

Marcel had heard that tone from Elijah many times while growing up, and smiled. Klaus was in for a long lecture about daggering his siblings, and Marcel knew how much Klaus hated it when Elijah stayed calm and lectured instead of lashing out.

“No problem. I’ve got business to attend to anyway,” Marcel said quietly as he pushed himself up off the ground. He dusted himself off, smirked, and gave Klaus a wink behind Elijah’s back before he walked away.

Klaus scowled at Marcel as the younger vampire left, and then turned his attention to Elijah. “Tell me brother, how did you find your way out of… your predicament?”

“We’ll not talk here.” Elijah turned his back on his brother, and started walking briskly towards their home. “Come along.”

Klaus glared at his brother’s back and refused to move.

When Elijah didn’t hear footsteps behind him, he stopped but didn’t turn around. He raised his voice slightly and said, “Niklaus, I’m quite furious with you, do you really want to have this discussion in the middle of the street?”

Balling his hands into fists, Klaus started following his infuriatingly calm older brother.

# # #

Twenty minutes of silence later, they made it to the plantation. The grounds surrounding the mansion used to stretch for miles and miles, but now only twenty acres were left. Instead of heading toward the mansion itself, Elijah walked off the main path, and headed towards the outskirts of their property.

Klaus sighed, but followed. Of course his brother wouldn’t want to do this in the comfort of their own home, if there was even the slightest chance that their argument would upset the women.

When they were close to the edge of their boarder, Klaus said, “Your chivalry is outdated and unnecessary, brother. Rebekah has seen us fight more than once, and Hayley is more… determined survivor than delicate flower.”

“You think we’re out here because of them?” Elijah finally stopped next to an old tree stump, and turned to face his sibling. “We’re out here to protect your pride.”

“My pride?”

Elijah crossed his arms, and said, “I’ve been trying to help you since I arrived in New Orleans. I want us all to have a second chance at happiness, and this child, your child, is the key to that. I pledged my loyalty to you Niklaus, and in return you daggered me, and handed me over to Marcel.”

“No one asked you to help!” Klaus shouted, trying to ignore the guilt churning in his stomach.

Elijah continued as if his brother hadn’t said a word. “We’ve discussed your penchant for daggering your siblings on numerous occasions, little brother. What have I said about it?”

“I will not parrot your words back to you!”

“Very well then, I’ll explain it to you again.”

Klaus groaned.

“You want Rebekah and me to be loyal. You want us to trust you completely, and to stand by your side, and yet you destroy our trust when you betray us with a dagger to the chest. How can you expect us to trust you, when you betray us?”

Elijah raised an eyebrow, and shook his head. “From this day forth, there will be no more daggering.”

Klaus chuckled bitterly. “The almighty Elijah with another decree to bestow upon his siblings. I believe you’ll have just about as much luck as God himself in getting us to follow your commandments.”

“There will also be no more beating each other senseless in a fight, no matter how much you tempt me.” Elijah reached out to touch his brother, but Klaus cautiously took a step back. With a sigh, Elijah took a step forward, and put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Do you know why?”

“No, but I’m sure you’ll enlighten me.”

“Because that unconditional love you’ve been searching for, has been right under your nose your entire life.” Elijah pulled his brother into a tight hug, and said, “I don’t say it often, but I do love you, Niklaus.”

Taken by surprise, Klaus felt his eyes blur with hated tears. He wasn’t mentally equipped to push his brother away at this point. He’d been brewing for a fight the whole evening, so the declaration of love caught him off guard. Slowly, Klaus wrapped his arms around his brother to hug him back.

“I’ll never give up on you, no matter how many times you stick a dagger in my heart,” Elijah promised. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll let your behavior go unanswered.”

Klaus’ eyes opened wide, and he tried to take a step back, but Elijah captured both of his wrists in a death grip before Klaus could step away. The brothers were fairly evenly matched when it came to a physical fight, but because Elijah had caught Klaus off guard emotionally, he had the upper hand.

Klaus didn’t try to struggle yet. Feeling betrayed, he said, “You just said no more beating each other senseless.”

“I have no intention of beating you. Do you remember when father gave me my first sword?”

“What?” Klaus didn’t understand this shift in the conversation.

“I’d just turned thirteen, and when you asked father if you could have a sword as well, he said…”

“That I’d have to wait until I turned thirteen,” Klaus said with irritation. “Yes I remember, though I don’t understand what that has to do with this.” He tried to tug one of his wrists out of Elijah’s grip without success.

“You were so jealous, that you followed me to the riverbank the next day, and when I took the sword off to wash up, you absconded with it into the woods.”

Klaus’ eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Where is this going, brother?”

“I think you know very well where it’s going. I tracked you down, and talked you into handing the sword back over. Do you remember what you made me promise before you agreed to give it back?”

Klaus burst into laughter. He laughed so hard that his eyes watered, and he had trouble standing up straight.

Elijah calmly waited him out without saying a word.

When Klaus was able to speak again, he said, “Oh, Elijah, please don’t tell me that’s your plan for keeping me in line.”

“What did you make me promise that day?” Elijah said again without a hint of irritation.

Still chuckling, Klaus said, “Brother dear, if you think for one second that a hiding will make me care about anything, you’re sadly mistaken.”

“What did you make me promise that day?” Elijah asked for a third time.

Elijah said nothing. Both brothers knew that Elijah had the patiencs to wait there and hold Klaus in place for several days if necessary to get the younger vampire’s compliance. Klaus could never win a battle of wills through patiencs, because he had almost none, and if they started to fight, there was no guarantee that Klaus would get the upper hand.

Klaus pursed his lips, and looked off into the distance. “I made you promise not to tell father what I’d done.”

“That’s not exactly the whole story.”

Glaring at his brother, Klaus said, “Fine. I begged you not to tell father, and you refused, touting some sentimental nonsense about worrying for my safety if I tried to take the sword again. I knew father would whip me if he found out, so I told you that I’d give the sword back if you promised to punish me yourself in lieu of telling father.”

Elijah nodded. “That was the first time I put you over my knee, and you wept inconsolably for several minutes after I’d finished, even though it was only a few smacks. Do you remember what you said while I was doing my best to comfort you?”

Klaus whispered to the ground, “That I wanted father to love me as much as you loved me.”

Elijah shook Klaus’ wrists once and said, “The same is true for me. I want you to love me more than father did.”

Klaus’ eyes darted up in confusion.

“You may have been the one he beat the most often, but it wasn’t as if the rest of us escaped his wrath entirely, especially if we stood up for you, and in the end he tried to kill us all. I hated father every bit as much as you did. We promised each other that we would stand together always and forever, and to show your love for me, you daggered me without warning.”

“I’m sorry,” Klaus said sincerely while a tear slid down his face.

“I believe that you are, but…” Elijah moved to sit on the nearby stump, pulling Klaus along with him, and depositing him face down across his thighs. “…you’re still getting spanked to help this lesson stick.” One of Elijah’s hands settled in the middle of Klaus’ back, ready to hold him in place if necessary.

With difficulty, Klaus forced himself not to fight back. His muscles were tense with the effort to stay still in the ridiculous position, which helped to keep his tears in check. His knees practically touched the ground off one side of Elijah’s lap, while his hands grasped the dirt and grass on the other side.

Klaus could easily bite his brother’s leg, or dig an elbow into his side to get loose, but he didn’t. He told himself that he was going to allow Elijah to do this to him, simply because it was a quick and easy way to get back in his big brother’s good graces. He also told himself that he certainly wasn’t being compliant because he felt as though he might deserve what was about to happen.

The first slap landed on the right side of his rear end, and Klaus’ eyebrows drew together in confusion. He’d fought with Elijah too many times to count, and he knew that his brother could hit with more force than he was using. The next swat landed on the left side, and while it stung a little, Elijah clearly wasn’t using his full strength.

For the next couple of minutes Klaus remained still, trying to figure his brother out. The steady cadence of Elijah’s hand landing on his behind filled his ears, bringing back memories from centuries ago. He pushed those thoughts away, and said, “I don’t understand.”

“What don’t you understand, Niklaus?” Elijah asked while spanking.

“You go to all the trouble of bringing me out here for a punishment, and then… you do this?”

“I’ve been harsh with you several times in the past, and it hasn’t taught you a thing. It’s time for a new approach. Maybe if I match your acts of hate and violence with love and kindness again and again, you’ll learn by example.”

Klaus squirmed uncomfortably. “It wasn’t an act of hate or violence, it was a calculated move.”

“If that were the case Niklaus, you would have explained the situation to me before hand.”

Klaus felt a lump forming in his throat. He couldn’t refute Elijah’s statement, and they both knew it. The physical effect of the continued spanking was getting harder to ignore as the sting built up, and the emotional impact of Elijah’s words seemed to make it that much worse.

A few minutes later, the relentless swats became intolerable, and a tiny whimper slipped out of Klaus’ throat. “Lijah, I said I was sorry.” His voice sounded so pathetic to his own ears, that he turned bright red. He put a hand on the stump his brother was sitting on, and pushed in a half-hearted attempt to get up.

Elijah hadn’t heard Klaus shorten his name in centuries, and it gave him hope that he was getting through his brother’s defenses. He stopped spanking, put a little pressure on Klaus’ back to keep him over his lap, and said gently, “Tell me what tonight’s lesson is, baby brother.”

Klaus let himself be pushed back into place with a small unintentional whine of protest. “Not to dagger my siblings,” he said. He heard his own voice wavering with emotion.

“No. We’ve been over that issue many times without success. Tonight is about something more basic than that.” Elijah patted Klaus on the back. “Try again.”

“No more acts of hate and violence towards you or Rebekah?” Klaus ventured as his eyes welled with tears.

“No, that’s an end result of the lesson once you learn it. The lesson, my stubborn little brother, is that we love each other, and we should treat each other accordingly. Which is why you’re currently over my lap with a sore backside, instead of on the ground with a broken nose, bruised ribs, and a snapped neck.”

The tears Klaus had been trying to avoid finally slid down his face.

Elijah smelled the tears and said, “Have I made my position on this subject clear to you, Niklaus?”

“Yes,” Klaus said quietly.

“Very well then, up you go.” Elijah put a hand on his brother’s upper arm, and pulled to help him stand up.

As soon as he was upright, Klaus wiped the tears off his face, and tried to stop more from forming.

Elijah stood as well, straightened the sleeves of his jacket, and then put a hand on his brother’s shoulder to give it a gentle squeeze.

Klaus put both hands on his ass and muttered, “I’d rather have a snapped neck.”

With a teasing smile in place, Elijah said, “Why is that little brother? Certainly it couldn’t be because the spanking actually did make you care.”

Abashed, Klaus scowled and lied, “No, I’d just prefer temporary death to listening to you prattle on about family.”

Elijah chuckled and said, “Let me know when you’re ready to head for the house.”

Klaus sighed loudly, let his hands drop to his sides, and said, “I’m as ready as I’m going to get.”

The two walked to the house together, feeling less antagonistic towards each other than they had in years.